'What let us down was batsmanship' - MS Dhoni reasons out CSK's seventh loss of IPL 2022

Defending champions Chennai Super Kings endured the seventh loss of IPL 2022 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Pune and were kicked out of the playoffs race. The season didn’t go well for the side while not being able to click together as a unit. MS Dhoni returned to captaincy after Ravindra Jadeja relinquished the role before CSK’s game against SRH but that might have been late given the damage that was done. After bearing a loss against Faf du Plessis and his men, Dhoni came up to talk about reasons behind the same.

The legendary skipper stated that batsmanship let them down as they kept losing wickets after a fine start provided by Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Moreover, Dhoni emphasized better shot selection by players especially when the situation demands that way rather than going with their instincts. The Yellow Army was restricted to just 160 runs and lost the crucial game by 13 runs.

“We did well to restrict them to 170-odd runs. We had to get off to a good start, everything was up to the mark and what let us down was the batsmanship. When you are chasing you know what is required and at times you have to curb your instinct and see what really the situation is demanding rather than playing your shots. The shot selection could have been better towards the end. We had a good start and had wickets in hand, the surface kept getting better but we lost wickets at regular intervals,” said Dhoni after RCB vs CSK game.

Chasing is about calculations and batting first is about instinct: MS Dhoni

Concluding his statements, the Ranchi stalwart was of the opinion that chasing is all about calculation and batting first is more about instinct. However, a player has to decide in the middle only which way he has to take the game forward. After the loss, CSK moved out of the playoffs contention while RCB jumped to the fourth slot in the points table.

“We can look back at some of the shots if we take care of those things. Chasing is about calculations and batting first is more about instinct. Ultimately as a batter or bowler, you are in the middle and you have to decide,” he added.